Hawaii, past and present

Front matter

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Preface

This book has a double purpose: to tell those who stay at home something about Hawaii, the youngest of American Territories ; and to help those who are going there to plan their trip intelligently. Baedeker has not yet extended his labours to the Pacific Islands, and no guidebook is available for the traveller. Many books have been written about special phases of Hawaii — its history or its commerce or its industry — ^but none has attempted to give concisely a survey of its history, its present conditions, and its natural beauty. This book, therefore, falls naturally into two divisions, the first part explanatory, the second, as well as may be, descriptive.

The information* it contains has been gathered from most diverse sources, books, pamphlets, and even railroad folders, the whole checked by my own personal knowledge. The facts, I am sure, are accurate. The descriptions are largely from my own observations, and I have tried not to fall into the error of exaggeration so common in books of this kind.

The very comprehensiveness of the book has made it difficult to write. It would have been easy to devote all the space to discussion of industrial conditions, or of the Hawaiian people, or of the Volcano, but this would have been to write an essay

vii viii PREFACE

for specialists. It would have been still easier to tell of my own boyhood experiences, of thrilling climbs over the mountains in search of land-shells, of amusing experiences on the funny little old inter-island boats, but this would have resulted only in another " Diary,'* this time of a quite ordinary boy. I have tried, however, to keep myself in mind in so far as to tell things as I myself have seen them, expressing so far as possible in the descriptions my own feelings about the scenes ^described. And I hope the book may do something toward stirring in others an interest in Hawaii, an interest which, with fuller knowledge, must issue in something of the affection for the Islands that is felt by all of us who have there spent our childhood days.

I have drawn freely on Dr. W. N. Alexander's excellent book, " A Brief History of the Hawaiian People," and on Mr. C. W. Baldwin's clear and accurate " Greography of the Hawaiian Islands,'* and to the authors of both these books I want to express my thanks for the cordial permission they have given me to make use of the result of their study. Most of all I must thank my father, who has read my manuscript and who, from his almost inexhaustible knowledge of Hawaiian affairs, has made suggestions without which this book would hardly have been possible.

XII Appendix

ILLUSTRATIONS

Statue of Kamehameha I

Hawaiian grass house, Kona, Hawaii ....

Spearing fish at Napoopoo, Hawaii ....

Hawaiian surf-riding .

Ascending Pali road six miles * N. E. of Honolulu .

Executive Building, formerly the Royal Palace, Honolulu

** Washington Place," residence of Queen Liliuokalani, Honolulu .

Diamond Head and Waikiki from Punch Bowl

Sugar cane in flower; will be ripe and ready to grind in from six to eight weeks

Oahu sugar mill, near Honolulu, cane ready for grinding

Pineapple plantation, Wahiawa, Oahu

View of Port of Honolulu and Harbour; Nuuanu Valley behind .... xi

. Frontispiece Facing page 8

" « 84

«* " 46 it u 70

u u »yg

" « 82 <« " 90 xii ILLUSTRATIONS

Banyan tree and Royal

Palms, Honolulu . . Facing f age 104

Oahu College grounds, showing Royal Palm Avenue and one of the school buildings " ** 112

Hilo Bay and town, Mauna Kea, 14,000 feet high, in the background ... «« " igg

Waianae Mountains across

rice field, Oahu ... *« " 134

Waimea River and Valley,

Bridge over crack on floor of

Scene at Onomea on east

coast of Hawaii . . « <* 170

Visitors scorching postal cards and letters in lava in Kilauea communicating with internal fires . . « « 184

The rim of the crater of

Haleakala .... « « igg

Liquid lava in Halemaumau,

Hawaiian " pounding poi " . " " 218

Hawaiian lei and flower

sellers, Honolulu . . «< « ggg

PAST AND PRESENT